Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Lewis.
Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn is an uncommon but distinctive condition which appears in the first six weeks of life, associated with variable degrees of hypercalcaemia and which resolves spontaneously over months. We report a case of subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn following perinatal distress and complicated by thrombocytopenia and hypercalcaemia.
We measured the concentrations of the three major monoamine neurotransmitters noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin, their metabolites, and receptor binding sites in autopsied brain of three patients with narcolepsy. As compared with the controls, concentrations of the noradrenaline and serotonin metabolites MHPG and 5-HIAA, respectively, were markedly elevated in cerebral cortical subdivisions of the narcolepsy patients together with a trend for above-normal neurotransmitter/metabolite "turnover" ratio. A moderately reduced number of alpha 1-adrenoceptors, as judged by the reduced levels of 3H-prazosin binding, was observed in cerebral cortex of two of the three patients with narcolepsy. Mean striatal levels of dopamine and its metabolite homovanillic acid were normal, whereas the concentration of dopamine's second metabolite, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, was markedly reduced by 50% or greater. This was accompanied by a marked increase (+125%) in mean 3H-spiperone binding to the D2 dopamine receptor in both caudate and putamen; in contrast, the levels of 3H-SCH 23390 binding to the striatal D1 dopamine receptor were in the normal range. Our data provide evidence for altered brain monoaminergic neurotransmitter function in human narcolepsy.
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Resonance Raman spectroscopy has been used to study chemically modified retinal analogues involving chain substitutions, ring substitutions, or Schiff-base linkages. In addition, retinal fragments and fully deuterated retinals were investigated, and infrared spectra of the four isomers of retinal were obtained. Low-frequency resonance Raman spectra are also reported for all of the isomers of retinal, for the protonated and unprotonated Schiff bases of trans-retinal, for beta-ionone, and for trans-3-dehydroretinal. Band assignments were made to specific vibrational motions, and these assignments have led to a detailed understanding of the spectral features observed in the resonance raman spectra of the retinylidene chromophore in rhodopsin and bacteriorhodopsin.
Resonance Raman spectra of squid rhodopsin have been obtained under a variety of temperature and illumination conditions. The data have been characterized in terms of spectral contributions from squid rhodopsin, isorhodopsin, bathorhodopsin, lumirhodopsin, mesorhodopsin, P-465, and acid metarhodopsin. The results are compared with the spectral features obtained from bovine rhodopsin, isorhodopsin, and bathorhodopsin. The data support a proposed structure for the chromophore in bathorhodopsin which is not all trans, 11-cis, or 9-cis. This structure can be generated from either rhodopsin or isorhodopsin by a similar motion (simultaneously rotating chromophore carbon atoms 10 and 11 out-of-plane). Furthermore, we detect the same distinct bathorhodopsin vibrational modes when rhodopsin is illuminated between 4 and 100 K. This demonstrates that under steady-state illumination the light-induced chromophore structural alterations occurring at 4 K are very similar to those occurring at higher temperatures. Finally, our data indicate that bathorhodopsin is generated not only by structural transitions in the chromophore but also alterations in the opsin conformation as has recently been proposed[Lewis, A. (1978) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75, 549].
Resonance Raman spectra of various intermediates in the bacteriorhodopsin proton pumping cycle have been obtained at physiological and low temperatures. To interpret these data, spectra of modél compounds, bacteriorhodopsin analogues, and isotopically labeled membranes have been measured. These results demonstrate that a protein group interacts with the Schiff base proton and, thus, the chromophore in protonated bacteriorhodopsin species is not a simple protonated Schiff base. This accounts for the abnormally low frequency of the C=N+H vibrational mode in bacteriorhodopsin and other failures to model the chromophore in bR570 with a simple butylamine protonated Schiff base of all-trans-retinal. To obtain the resonance Raman spectrum of M412 at physiological pH and temperatures, a dual beam kinetic technique was developed. We demonstrate that in the fingerprint region of the resonance Raman spectrum M412 is modeled accurately by a simple unprotonated butylamine Schiff base of all-trans-retinal. Spectral resolution and the solution environment of the membrane suspensions play important roles in this conclusion. Kinetic resonance Raman techniques are also used to monitor the time evolution of the M412 species and the intermediates which precede it. We find spectral features in our kinetic data which can be assigned to L550, and we present evidence for a new unprotonated species (X) which occurs before M412. Single pass flow resonance Raman spectra of bR560 also have been obtained, and, although bR570 and M412 appear to have all-trans chromophores, there are 13-cis-like features in the spectra of bR560, L550, and X.
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Subpicosecond pulses have been used to study the ultrafast dynamics of the photochemistry of bacteriorhodopsin. An optically induced absorption that appears in about 1.0 picosecond at physiological temperatures has been resolved in time. The data can be interpreted in terms of the photochemical formation of bathobacteriorhodopsin and provide support for an excitation mechanisms involving molecular rearrangement in the protein induced by electron redistribution in the chromophore.
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Resonance Raman data on bathorhodopsin (bovine and squid) at 95,77, and 4 degrees K support a mechanism of excitation proposed by Lewis in which both a protein conformational transition and chromophore structural alteration to a "dicisoid" configuration are required to generate the bathorhodopsin species observed in steady-state photostationary mixtures. However, these results also suggest that the molecular structure with a red-shifted chromophore absorption detected at room temperatures in 1 ps using picosecond absorption spectroscopy may not necessarily have the same chromophore conformation as the steady-state bathorhodopsin species.